This invention relates to a driving support apparatus in which, when a facility selected by a driver has appeared within a range of a predetermined distance in front of, and in the left or right direction of, his/her own vehicle position, the direction of, and the distance to, the facility are informed by the movement of an image of a stereophonic or three dimensional sound.
In the case of a vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus, it is possible to display facilities standing around one""s own vehicle on a map irrespective of whether navigation is being done or not. In addition, the facilities are displayable for each genre covering from a public facility to a gas station, each being often represented by a symbolic icon.
Depending on the place and genre, a many facilities are, however, aggregated densely and icons are displayed overlapped, with the result that the driver can hardly recognize them. The same things will be occurred depending on the scale of the selected map. It falls under the case where the facilities such as eating houses, or the like, are selected. In such a case, the driver unconsciously must stare at the display screen for recognition, which hinders the safety driving.
This invention has been made in order to solve the above problems and has an object of providing a driving support apparatus which informs the driver of a direction of, and the distance to, the facility by means of a stereophonic or three dimensional sound.
The driving support apparatus according to this invention includes facility judging means for judging a location, from a current position, of a facility selected in advance, based on the current position and map data; guidance synchronizing means for giving voice guidance by generating voice data when a result of judgement by the facility judging means contains a voice request; voice guidance means for calling stereophonic or three dimensional sound field generation based on the voice guidance generated by the guidance synchronizing means; stereophonic or three dimensional signal processing means for outputting a volume signal based on a call of voice guidance from the voice guidance means after converting the volume signal to a stereophonic or three dimensional sound field signal; and at least respectively two speakers for generating stereophonic or three dimensional sound field reproduction space corresponding to left and right outer ears of a listener upon receipt of the stereophonic or three dimensional sound field signal.
According to this arrangement, it is possible to inform the listener of the distance from the current position to, and the direction of, the facility that has been selected in advance by the movement of the image of the stereophonic or three dimensional sound. The listener is thus able to keep on driving while looking ahead without turning his/her eyes onto the map on the display. This facilitates the confirmation of the facility and contributes to the safety driving.
The facility judging means of the driving support apparatus according to this invention includes current position estimating means for estimating the current position; facility information extracting means for reading facility information selected in advance from data base having stored therein facility information; and leading means for searching a route from the current position to the facility by inputting the current position, the map data and the selected facility information.
According to this arrangement, if the facility standing on one of the left lane and the right lane depending on the running lane, e.g., on the left lane in Japan, is exclusively selected, it is not necessary to make a U-turn or a right-turn if the guidance is made on the facility that is being looked for, which ensures the safety driving. This is particularly effective on a road having a median strip or a plurality of lanes.
The driving support apparatus according to this invention further includes painting means for painting on display means based on a paint request from the guidance synchronizing means.
According to this arrangement, it becomes possible to display the facility that has been selected in advance on the route searching of the map. Together with the voice indication, this facilitates the confirmation of the location of the facility.
In the driving support apparatus according to this invention the voice guidance means includes a volume profile for outputting a volume corresponding to the voice data.
According to this arrangement, the stereophonic or three dimensional signal processing means can input a volume corresponding to the voice data, thereby facilitating the signal conversion processing.